"Bruce W.1" ) writes:

Amateur Radio is a public service, the primary purpose of which is to
provide communications for the public and public services when other
means are not available.

If it weren't for this the FCC would have sold the Amateur Radio
bandwidth a long time ago.

I could list here some of the nice things that hams do for other people,
but it would be too long.

Why would you want to associate yourself with this group of do-gooders,
if even as an imposter?

Perhaps a psychiatrist could give us a diagnoses here.

I think that's a stretch.

Amateur radio exists because people played with radios from day 1.
There was no use yet for the thing, and amateurs were off there
playing with the stuff along with the "professionals". It's only
with the playing that practical uses came along. And once there
were practical uses, the rules came.

Since amateurs had already staked out use of the new thing, they fought
to keep it. It helped a lot that there were "amateurs" who had a lot
to do with the development of radio.

Amateur radio is unique in that virtually all the other radio services
came along later, and the service had to be carved out. But nobody said
"we need a service for people to play with radio", nobody said "society
will be better off with this". Amateur radio exists as a radio
service because it was already in existence.

The public service thing was created later, and it's propogation as
a basic concept seems to be to ensure the existence of the service.

But, amateur radio is first a playground for playing with radio. For
a long time, it could justify its existence because young people would take
it up, and that interest would get them to pursue technical careers. It's
a gray area how much was developed in amateur radio, but it's quite clear
that through the history of radio, many amateurs made significant inroads
in the field.

Take note that when I was licensed here in Canada in 1972, it was
still the "Amateur Experimental Service".

Michael VE2BVW